The specific aims of this research are to study the production and perception of important linguistic patterns in the speech of laryngectomized patients who are native speakers of a tone language. Highly-rated alaryngeal speakers of Thai, including two conventional esophageal speakers and one user of the Servox electrolarynx, are chosen for investigation. Proposed studies focus on four linguistic patterns in Thai: tone, word-initial stops, vowel length, and rhythm. Taken together, acoustical and perceptual investigations of these linguistic aspects of speech after laryngectomy should contribute new and useful information concerning both phonatory and nonphonatory aspects of alaryngeal speech production. With these contributions to our body of knowledge about alaryngeal speech, we move a step closer to our long-term objectives which are to delineate aerodynamic and physiologic mechanisms underlying alaryngeal speech production and to develop both diagnostic and remedial speech rehabilitation programs for patients with cancer of the larynx.